Throughout the Bible, God tells us about some “bad” girls that made mistakes. Some of those were BIG mistakes. I think God put their mistake in the Bible not for us to judge them, but to learn from them.
I loved reading Liz Curtis Higg’s book – Bad Girls of the Bible and What We Can Learn from Them. She also has a series on Right Now Media for the book that is engaging and will have you laughing. Let’s get started with the original bad girl of the Bible.
Eve was the original bad girl of the Bible.
She made the first huge mistake that brought sin into the world with her husband Adam. She allowed the serpents words to put doubt and even a little ego into her heart. The devil always has a base of truth, but sneaks in lies by expanding upon it. We can’t stop the whispering in our ears, but we can refuse to listen and respond.
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7
Take time to read the Bible. This will prevent the “Did God really say…” doubt that can be so easily sowed into our heart. Eve added to the word of God when confronted with the snake. The Lord never told her not to touch it, just not to eat it. When we exaggerate God’s word we can sow seeds of doubt in the minds of others even if we mean well.
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” Genesis 3:1-3
The tree had been in the middle of the garden for who knows how long and they obediently avoided it. Suddenly the tree was the one thing on Eve’s wish it. She fixated on the tree instead of looking to God for the truth, seeking her husband for shared counsel (probably because she knew he would say no….), and looking at fruit that was available to her. Once this happens Satan doesn’t need to do anything else because the temptation will be so great. Where you focus is where you attention will go. Be self-aware if you are avoiding conversations with others that won’t tell you what we want to hear.
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Philippians 4:8
God will always be a loving Father to us. After they ate the forbidden fruit, they realized that they were naked and covered themselves with fig leaves. This is what we tend to do also when we are living in sin or mess up. We try to cover it up or worse surround ourselves with people with the same sin so we don’t stand out. We try to hide just like Adam and Eve. God knew what they did and that they were hiding, but still called out to them. He is a God that provides and made them coverings with animal skins. This was the beginning of innocent blood being shed for our sins.
When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8-9
And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife. Genesis 3:21
We all fall short, but not short enough for his grace.
